Orioles Sign Dale Thayer To Minors Deal

The Orioles have added veteran righty Dale Thayer on a minor league contract, his representatives at O’Connell Sports Management announced on Twitter. He’ll receive an invitation to major league camp in the deal.

Thayer, 35, ran up excellent results in his first three years with the Padres after receiving only minimal prior MLB opportunities. Over 2011-14, he worked to a 3.02 ERA with 8.3 K/9 against 2.4 BB/9 across 188 frames.

But the righty couldn’t maintain that trajectory after finally earning his first arbitration payday last year. He managed only 37 2/3 frames before being designated and outrighted. Thayer’s 4.06 ERA was hardly a disaster, but there was obvious cause for concern as he fell off to 6.0 strikeouts and 3.6 walks per nine.

Baltimore will presumably slot the veteran into a competition for a middle relief role. He’ll look to earn a spot in a pen that could draw from an interesting pool of names this spring, including players like the rehabbing Dylan Bundy, emergent Mychal Givens, resurgent Brad Brach, and swingman Vance Worley.

Comments

Dirty Dale provided some nice innings for the Padres for a few years. Last year he just didn’t look the same. By the time he was sent down, he looked like he had lost his confidence. Perhaps he can regain his effectiveness. Seemed like a nice guy. I wish him well.

I find it interesting that all Padres pitchers had a down year in 2015 compared to 2014, but people keep saying it was the pitchers doing. If it was one or two maybe, but it was all of them across the board. That means it was NOT the pitcher that had the down year, it was the defense and catcher that had a down year.

Yeah that’s what I’ve been saying. It is a considerable difference when you watch games that Hedges starts compared to Norris. The game calling and flow is so much smoother, you can see hitters getting set up, you can see hedges bouncing around behind the dish with an energy and a purpose that you don’t see with Norris. Problem is you get nothing from the offensive side of the ball from Hedges unfortunately.

In 2014, Rene Rivera was Cashner & Ross’s personal catcher with Grandal catching the other guys and the staff as a whole was really solid. Then you fast forward to 2015 and every guy on the pitching staff with the exception of Ross, Maurer, Benoit & Kimbrel.

I don’t see an issue with a catcher who is defensive minded but lacks with the bat. If you can prevent runs from scoring doesn’t that hold as much value as being able to drive them in? I look at it as a “game manager” as a quarterback in football, you might not throw for 300 yards and 4 touchdowns every game but if you don’t turn the ball over, you keep your team in games and give them more of an opportunity to win.

Like I said before, it’s difficult to quantify whether Hedges is preventing as many opponent runs from scoring as preventing the Padres themselves from scoring with his offensive shortcomings. Likewise, it’s tough to say whether or not the ultimate result is better than Norris, who is clearly superior with the bat but inferior as a defensive catcher.

^^My middle point got cut off on the last sentence, what I meant to say was.. “Then you fast forward to 2015 and every guy on the pitching staff with the exception of Ross, Maurer, Benoit & Kimbrel all had down years. I just don’t see that as a coincidence.”

Haha still remember that game against the Giants which I believe was his last outing as a Padre when he threw his gum at Hector Sanchez for watching the Moonshot HR that he hit. He had a nice 3-4 year stint with us though.

But in regards to your earlier comment, nah. I don’t think the catching situation is the biggest problem at all.

1. The bullpen is 39 year old Fernando Rodney, swingman Carlos Villanueva, Quack, Pomeranz and a bunch of Rule 5 & minor league free agents.

2. We are banking on a bunch of “if’s” this year.

If Wil Myers can finally stay healthy.
If Melvin Upton can put together a full season of the short sample he showed at the end of 15′.
If Kemp can have a good first half.
If Jay is fully recovered from his wrist injury.

And with all of these things being said, it’s under the leadership of a first year manager. So honestly, who knows how all of this will shape up.

I know right? They need to bring that back. What do you think the starting rotation will end up being on opening day? Who pitches the 7th and 8th innings assuming Rodney does indeed nail down the closers gig.

Yeah I wasn’t overly impressed in the couple outings I saw Edwards pitch last season but it does seem like the organization is super high on him. I think the kid to watch out for is going to be Cesar Vargas, the Yankees had a good one last year and he did everything he could to get called up but they were so deep that he never got his opportunity, his numbers were beyond good and I saw some videos of him blowing away guys like Gallo, Mazara & Brinson in a game against Texas’s AAA squad. Pomeranz was also sneaky good with the A’s last year out of their bullpen, I think most fans think he is coming over to be a lefty specialist but I think he will hold a more defined role than that, he could very well end up with the 7th inning gig regardless of situational match ups.

I think if Brandon Morrow is healthy he will get the 5 spot in the rotation with Colin Rea going back to El Paso, first man on deck in when someone goes down, most likely Morrow given his injury history.

So you think Martin and Smith don’t make the team out of Spring Training?
By the way, it’s more likely they go with a 7 man bullpen so one of those guys (probably Baumann or Edwards) will start the year in AAA. Pomeranz and Vincent are out of options.